Why MYSTERIES? Because that is the genre I read. Why PARADISE? Because that is where I live.
Among other things, this blog, the result of a 2008 New Year's resolution, will act as a record of books that I've read, and random thoughts.

23 December 2009

Review: THE DOG WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, Alexander McCall Smith

The Dog Who Came In From The Cold is a Corduroy Mansions novel by Alexander McCall Smith. Yesterday I completed listening to the final chapter, number 78 - at least I think it was the last chapter.

To be quite honest I'm not sure I really know what the novel was about. I'm a bit stuck to string more than a few words together about it. It had an air of having been written on the fly, and for me some of the story lines feel a bit unfinished - or did I just miss them being rounded off? Sometimes I think it was just AMS exploring an idea or having a small pontificate.

I don't think Alexander McCall Smith could really count it as one of his great successes. I certainly didn't engage with it in the way I can see The Telegraph hoped I would. I didn't join the FaceBook club, or follow Freddie de lay Hay on Twitter, or ask questions in the forum. Oh yes, I kept going back, listening to the next chapter, then the next, but I have only a hazy idea of how they all meshed together. If you have the time and inclination, you might like to start listening to them.

If I had a suggestion, perhaps next time the producers could consider making it possible for me to listen to Andrew Sachs reading the text while my eyes follow along. Each chapter is about 7 -8 minutes long, just long enough for my mind to wander and even lose track of the narration. Even Andrew Sachs can be a bit soporific at times. I think it would certainly help me remember events from one day to the next - bearing in mind that sometimes I listened to 3 or 4 chapters consecutively, and then often left it for a week - just long enough to develop great holes in my memory!

1 comment:

It was pretty good for written on the fly, and yes it was. I only got the last chapters he wrote, 2 days before they came online. It was crazy!I liked parts of it, and then there were some really slow parts.All in all like you said, not the best, but still not bad.